Destination: France (2002)

Train to Paris

Jun
17
2002

I got up this morning and left my crazy-nice roommates for Paris. I had lunch before I went to the station to catch my train. Waiting waiting waiting, I finally hear an announcement that my train is retarded..well, that’s the word for it in Italian meaning late, but it doubles quite nicely. So, it was 40 minutes late making me miss my TGV connection to Paris. Not only were the trains not air conditioned, but also I was trying to figure out different routes the entire time, so there was no relaxation. My Italian improved with this dilemma. Anyhow, I reach Torino, Italy and have to book a night train due to the retardation of my train, and have a good 7 hours before it is time to board. So I buy a phone card, and call as many people as I remembered numbers. I got onto the train finally at 11:55 and went to my compartment, which had to Arab speaking passengers, and then I went to the top bunk and got my bed ready.. That night I slept pretty well, considering I didn’t feel the trip took long, and I remember sleeping.

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Arrival in Paris

Jun
18
2002

My train arrived at 8:45 at a different station than I thought. So, I had to call Coralie to let her know the different station to come pick me up. Unfortunately, Coralie’s cell phone cuts out every 1 minute, and I had to call almost 8 times before I got the point across of where I was. Anyhow, we met up and I went back to her brother’s apartment to clean up and get ready for a day on the town in Paris. We had an awesome lunch, home made by Coralie herself, and we then went out to find me a duffel bag to put my stuff in to make it easier for me to go to Sweden. We found one for $26, that had wheels, so I figured I should take it then than to risk not having one at all. After that I also found some nice old ads in French that will look nice framed for wall hangings. We then went to the train station to pick up another girl from Knoxville, who had spent her year abroad in Angers, France. She was nice, and we then headed back to the apartment to wait for Matt to come in. I went to get Matt from the station, and headed back for Coralie’s to meet up with her brother Emmanuel for dinner at a Greek Restaurant. The food was really good, and the setting was nice. Unfortunately, I felt trapped in smoke =( We then headed back to Emmanuel’s to put our baggage up. After that, we went to Champs Elysees for a night stroll, and of course pictures of the Arc de Triomphe. BUSY DAY!

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Full Circle!

Jun
19
2002

I have now completed my first leg of my trip, making a complete circle around Europe and am now back in Amsterdam! I left Emmanuel’s this morning and headed for the train station to board the nice fast train to Amsterdam Centraal. I also found a place selling cheap English magazines, so I got caught up with the world by reading Newsweek and Time Magazine. Looks like nothing really has settled down, so it’s kind of nice to be removed from all the violent news being shoved in your ears everyday by the media. Anyhow, the trip was nice, and I found a hotel with almost no trouble. Not to say that I didn’t have to bargain or to go to a few before I found a good one, but how can you go wrong when you find a hotel named, “Hotel Ben”?! I talked him from $60 for a double down to $40, so I figured that was the best I was going to be able to do considering the past 3 hotels were asking for over $60 to begin with, due to it’s location next to the station. I will leave tomorrow for Sweden at 4:30pm, so I will just spend the day strolling around the canals!

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